The Christian Handbook - The Fall of Mankind

We are in a series called the Christian Handbook Fundamentals of the Faith. We

are talking about what Christians fundamentally believe, the biblical beliefs that Christians hold to.

All Christians hold everything in the Bible, but everything that we hold to.

Why do we want to look at what we believe because it informs how

we behave or informs how we act. Right, we want to know what

Christians believe and what Christians do because our belief drives our actions or our behaviors.

And last week we got to talk about marriage and God's good order in

the home. That was a fun one, right, Yeah. I think

it's more fun for you guys than it was for me. For I told

everybody I felt like I was just reading the Bible. It's just swinging a

sledge hammer hitting everybody in front of me. And I was like, Oh,

this doesn't hurt too bad. But it's the Bible. So we just

got to read it right and just what it says is true. So we

got to talk about marriage, so it was awesome. And God has a

way that he intends for things to be. He intends with them to be

that way. This is how he created them because he is the creator of

all things, and he has the authority to decide how things should be.

It's right that he would do that because he has the authority to do that.

He is the author and creator of life. And I think the author

of life has the best design and plan on how it should be lived.

And just like we talked a little bit about last week, when we create

something, we're the ones who decides what it is, what it's called,

what its purpose is. We're the ones that decide because we're the ones who

created it. And God is the creator of all things. And when we

follow his plan, things just work the way they're intended to work. They

work. But us as humans have a really bad habit of fighting against God's

plan right, and we like to make up our own way to do things.

And it wasn't long after God created Adam and Eve and then put them

in the garden that they decided to do to go their own way and do

their own thing rather than the right way that God had set up. If

you haven't caught on yet, we're talking about today, and this is also

the title of the message, is the Fall of mankind. Who did the

schedule and gave me marriage followed by the fall of mankind. That's just not

fair, just kidding. This is so good. It's really important for us

to understand what Christians believe about the fall of mankind. So we're going to

be reading in Genesis three today, So we have your Bible turn there because

we're gonna do the We're gonna read the whole chapter. It's gonna be awesome.

And if you don't have a Bible, we have Bibles available at the

Connect booth or Connect table out in the lobby, So if you don't own

one, we'd love for you to have them, because it's really important to

us that we all have access to the Bible that we read it because it

is God's word that he gave to us. Before we get into reading through

Genesis three, let's pray God, we thank you for today. We thank

you for this moment to just stop in our week and read through your word,

the word that you provided for us when you didn't have to that the

very words that you've spoken, you gave to us. And so God,

we just set aside any distractions in our minds or in our hearts and open

up ourselves to here and receive from you today. God, that as we're

reading your word, you are going to do a work in our hearts.

So you're going to grow our affections for you. You're going to cut away,

surge the things that need to be removed, and you're just gonna draw

us closer to yourself as we look at what happened in the garden of Eden,

the fall of mankind. And so God, we just think that you're

leading and guiding everything today, that any words that are spoken are the words

you want to be spoken, and they land on good soil. And so

we thank you for your word, and we thank you for this time together.

And Jesus name, everybody said, Amen. All right, we're gonna

read through Genesis three, and I have in big bold letters and my notes

read from your Bible, but it is on the screen in case you guys

want to follow along there. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any

of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman,

did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden.

The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees

in the garden. But God did say you must not eat fruit from the

tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch

it, or you will die. You will not certainly die, the serpent

said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from, your

eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and

evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for

food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she

took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who

was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of

them were opened, and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig

leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard

the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the

cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees

of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, where are

you? He answered, I heard you in the garden, and I was

afraid because I was naked, so I hid. And he said, who

told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I

commanded you not to eat from? The man said the woman, you put

here with me. She gave me some fruit from the tree, and I

ate it. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this

you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate.

So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this,

cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals. You will crawl

on your belly and you will eat, and you will eat dust all the

days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you

will strike his heel. To the woman, he said, I will make

your pains in child bearing very severe, with painful labor. You will give

birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will

rule over you to Adam, he said, because you have listened to your

wife and ate fruit from the tree which I commanded you, you must not

eat from it. Curses the ground because of you, through painful toil.

You will eat from it all the days of your life, and it will

produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the

field by the sweat of your brow. You will eat your food until you

return to the ground. Since from it you were taken. For dust you

are, and to dust you will return. Adam named his wife Eve,

because she would be excuse me, she would become the mother of all the

living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and

clothe them. And the Lord God said, the man has now become like

one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to

reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and

live forever. So the Lord God banished him from the garden of Eden to

work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man

out, he placed on the east side of the garden of Eden cherubim and

a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the Tree of

life. Oh my gosh, that was way longer than I thought it was

going to be. Thank you for hanging onto that. It's really important to

read the full context of the text that we're preaching each time we break it

down, because we need to know the context. That's how that's what informs

the meaning. Okay, so we are talking about the fall, and Genesis

three is one of the most pivotal points in the whole biblical timeline for humanity.

Before chapter three, we see that everything is good. Everything is good

before chapter three, and we see that everything worked the way that God tended

for it to work. We see perfection. But in chapter three everything changes,

and I always the thing always comes to mind or the visual I Get's

know, when you're driving on the road and you see construction signs like hey,

constructions coming up, and you're driving, it's all great, and then

you hit the part where they dug up the concrete and it's all groove payment

pavement and then it's bumpy, loud and gritty. Everything was different. From

that moment it felt awesome, and then everything changed. That's the picture that

comes into my mind when we think about pre Genesis three and then post Genesis

three. That's something just isn't quite right. This isn't how the road is

supposed to be, This isn't how it's supposed to be. It was not

the way that it was intended. Everything changed. Sin enters into humanity,

and everything changes for us in ways that I think are deeper than we sometimes

can fathom, or we forget to consider what that change really really meant.

You just have to look at the garden of eating compared to it's now too

Now, what was it like back in the garden? What is it like

now? In the garden? Adam and Eve are literally walking in the presence

of God, literally walking in the presence of God. That's huge, that's

amazing. All of creation existed in harmony. There was no death, easy

labor, both in work and bearing children. But now everything is broken.

Everything's just wrong. You guys got that feeling too, Something just doesn't seem

right. Praise God that he sent Jesus to pave the road. Right,

But we're not gonna talk about that this week. We're gonna talk about that

next week. Today we're gonna break down just chapter three in Genesis. We're

gonna talk about what exactly happened. And there's different literary styles in the Bible,

and there's three main ones to consider as narrative, poetry, and discourse.

Right, So narrative is telling a story, that's what we're reading today.

Poetry look at like Psalm, that's a great way to see some poetry.

And then also discourses when you're trying to make an argument, you're trying

to make a point and trying to in someone of something. But today is

all about narrative. So what exactly happened to Genesis three? What effect it

had on everything? That's so we're going to talk about, and how am

I still being affected by it today? How am I still being affected by

the fall of man in Genesis three today? What areas in my life?

Am I still acting like Adam and even the garden? And we're going to

come back to that question at the end, And what areas of my life

am I still acting like Adam and Eve? You guys ready, let's go

to verse one. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any of the

wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman to God,

really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden. We

don't get really any backstory on the serpent. He kind of shows up.

He's just there. Now. The serpent was more crafty, and it says

he's more crafty, which means God made some other animals kind of crafty.

But I want to point out here that crafty isn't in and of itself negative,

It's just a thing. It's more. This is more a statement of

fact than it is a of something. But whatever, what the serpent does

with his craftiness, says a lot. Okay, it's a whole different story

with what he did with that craftiness. But who was a serpent? We

know the serpent is to be satan. We know that it is the devil,

and so we're gonna look at two places in Revelation just to show us

this, and the first one's in Revelation twelve. Then war broke out in

heaven. By the way, don't be afraid to read Revelation. Even if

don't if it doesn't make sense, just keep reading it, read it,

read it again, and reread it, and the Lord will illuminate what he

needs to and we'll study it for the rest of our lives. It's amazing.

It's so fun. Also kind of confusing, but it's okay, stick

with it. Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought

against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. I really

just want to hear like the dragon force music behind this. It'd be amazing.

But he was not strong enough and they lost their place in heaven.

The great dragon was hurled down that ancient serpent. That's important there, That

ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.

He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him. And then a

little bit further and Revelations twenty and I saw an angel come down out of

heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand of great

chain. He sees the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil

or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. So these two places

in Revelation that we see that ancient serpent is the same serpent from the garden.

It's the same serpent. In the beginning, it is Satan, and

spoiler alert, he loses. In the end, he loses. But what

was the first thing that Satan the serpent did when he showed when he showed

up, what was the first thing he did. Let's go back to our

verse in Genesis. He said to the woman, did God really say you

must not eat from any tree in the garden. It's the first thing he

did when he showed up. He questioned what God told Adam? Did God

really say? And this is what Satan does. He sows seeds of doubt.

He sows seeds of doubt. Are you sure that God said that,

or maybe when we're reading something in scripture and it's a hard truth that we

come across something is harder to accept, the devil comes in and say,

surely God didn't really mean that. You see this a lot in the world

today, So twisting of God's truth, a twisting of God's word, Satan

will sow seeds of doubt about what God says. But did you notice here

that Satan quotes God wrong? He says, did God really say you must

not eat from any tree in the garden? He actually misquotes God on what

God's actual command was. He's changing God's command in what appears to be kind

of a manipulative way, so slightly manipulative, making the command a little bit

more severe, and I think maybe even sowing the first seed of doubt that

God is keeping something from Adam and Eve. He's talking to Eve, and

this little seed of doubt is saying, like, did God really say changes

God's command? And he's like, God's holding something from you, this subtle

little seed of doubt. But then Eve actually corrects the misquote from the serpent,

so I'll keep reading. In verses two and three, the woman said

to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden.

But God did say, you must not eat fruit from the tree that is

in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you

will die. So Eve replies to Satan and says, what God said that

they are They can eat from the trees in the garden. The only one

that got to stay away from is the one that's in the middle of the

garden, which is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So

we saw that the serpent misquotes God. But then we also see that even

Eve misquoted God. Did you guys, notice that what did God actually say?

Let's look at that. That was back in chapter two, verses fifteen

through seventeen. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden

of to work it and to take care of it. And the Lord God

commanded the man, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden,

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and

evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die. Well,

first thing, can you go back one slide for me? Patricia?

Thank you. Do you notice that the Lord God took the man and put

him in the garden of eating too. What is this before the fall or

after the fall? So work is a good thing. Work is not a

result of the fall. Right, work is a good thing. I just

think it's a fun thing to point out. I mean, works a whole

lot harder since the fall. Okay, let's get back on track. God

told Adam that he can eat from any tree in the garden, but he

must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of evil. If he eats

from it, he will certainly die. So why did Eves say that if

I touch it that they'll die. I have no idea. I don't know

why he misquoted it. Some of the thoughts I was thinking was maybe God

told Maybe it's because God told the command to Adam before Eve was even created,

and he just explained it to her wrong, like that game of telephone,

you know, when someone starts something and says something and it turned and

by the end of the line it's something completely different. Maybe Adam just did

a poor job of explaining it to Eve because she wasn't even around when God

gave Adam the command. Or I was thinking, maybe it's like what I

do with my kids I'm like, stay away from that tree, don't even

touch it, or he'll die. Like, I just make the commands a

little bit more severe because I want to keep them safe. Maybe that was

something Adam did, or maybe even Eve knew the truth, but she was

starting to view God's commands as suggestions or that they're up for negotiation or debate.

God created man and woman good, right, and he made them good,

and they had the ability to disobey him. God has intention, and

this is something we'll probably talk about a little bit more later in the message.

I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself. But if God

created Adam and said you're very good, and even you're very good, and

gave them and they still had the ability to choose not to follow God,

well why would he do that. He came up with a plan. We're

gonna keep reading. There is a plan, so he knew it was going

to happen. And I don't know why I do because I'm not God.

Okay, let's keep moving Verses four and five. You will not certainly die,

the serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat

from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,

knowing good and evil. Now I think this is where I say,

is Satan the serpent shows who he truly is, shows his real colors.

He is a liar and a deceiver. God said that they would die if

they ate from the tree, but Satan is lying. Is the exact opposite.

And just to get a better picture of who the devil is, like

who he really is, let's look at John eight, just one verse John

eight forty four. And you belong to your father. This is Jesus talking.

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry

out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding

to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies,

he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father

of lies. That's who Satan is, That's who the devil is. He

is a murderer and a liar. His native language is literally to lie.

So when we lie, what language are we speaking? We should let that

one marinate for a second. We're speaking devil when we lie. But the

point I really want to make here is this. If you're taking notes,

you can write this down. Satan has been lying since the beginning, and

he still lies to you today. Satan has been lying since the beginning,

and he still lies to you today. It's just who he is. He

is a liar. But the only way to know when he is lying or

twisting the truth is to know what God says. And how do you know

what God says? You read your Bible. This is God's word. I

actually had someone a long time ago ask me. They're like, well,

when I'm praying, how do I know when God's speaking to me? I

said, how do you know when you're like in a crowded room and your

mom calls your name? How do you notice it? Well, I talk

to my mom all the time. I was like, Yes, talk to

God all the time. You'll start to recognize his voice. Like, but

how do I hear? I'm like, he spoke to you already. You

read the Word, because He already spoke to us. This is how we

recognize God's voice. We spend time in the word, we recognize his voice,

and then that still small voice is clear as day when he speaks to

you, especially in the moments that you need it, most moments where you're

under pressure, the moments where life is just getting hard. He speaks clear.

We just need to learn how to recognize his voice. That's how we

know the truth is by reading God's word. Okay, let's get back to

the verse four and five. He will certainly not die, the serpent said

to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it, your

eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Now, what Satan's doing is he's assuming God's motive or intent behind God's

command. And what's more important is he's actually attacking Eve's view of who God

is. Eve has a view, we all have a view of who God

is, and Satan right here is attacking the truth of that view. And

the implication in this statement is God knows. He's staying this to Eve.

God knows it if you eat it, you'll be like him, and he

doesn't want that. He doesn't want you to be like him. He doesn't

want you to have something. He's keeping something from you. That's what the

implication of what Satan's saying to Eve. And these are those little lives that

we often hear when it comes following just any command or design that God has

placed in front of us. It's one of the tactics of Satan to make

you want to doubt God. And one of the names of Satan is the

accuser. He's an accuser. He will accuse God of anything that makes you

doubt his character who he is. He wants you to doubt who God is.

So how do you know who God really is? How do you know

what his character really is? Read the Word, Read the Bible, and

he spend time with him. Spend time with God and read his word.

That is how we know the truth. And the truth about verse five here,

for God knows that when you eat eat from it, your eyes will

be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. The

truth about verse five is that their eyes would be opened. But God's plan

when he created Adam and Eve created humanity. That's what God decided was not

what was best for them to eat from that tree and to know or have

the knowledge of good and evil. That's God's plan and design was best for

humanity for them to be as they were. What was best for them was

to act and be as He had already created them to be. God set

a plan humanity. Adam and Eve were lacking nothing, nothing. They had

everything they needed from God. But Satan lied to them and tempted them with

an option, and that's usually what he does. Satan's not making you sin.

Read the Bible says you sin because of your own selfish desires, your

own flesh. He puts an option in front of you, and then you

choose to obey or to not obey, right to follow the plans and designs

of God, or to rebel. And when we're left to make our own

decisions, let's see what you've decided to do. Come on, Eve,

rooting for you, just kidding already read it. We know. When the

woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to

the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate

it. She also gave some of her husband, who was with her,

and he ate it. Good for food and pleasing for the eye. That

makes perfect sense. But I want to focus in here on this next piece,

and please, I don't know, and then desirable for gaining wisdom,

because it makes sense. Oh, it looks it's good for it looks good

to me. It's great for food, like that makes sense, but desirable

for gaining wisdom. So something in Eve felt like she was missing something,

like she needed something more, that God hadn't provided everything she would need.

She had fomo fear of missing out. The grass is greener, that's another

thing, Right, you're looking ahead like it's greener where I'm not. But

at a base, she was discontented. She's not content with where she was

at. She was not satisfied in what the Lord had already provided. So

what did she do? She took some of the fruit. She ate it.

This is humanity's first sin. God said, don't, and they did

it. This is humanity's first sin. And then she gave them to Adam,

who was with her. Okay, I don't want to I don't want

to skip over this. I want to pause and look at this. That

means all this happened with Adam right there. He was right there. This

wasn't some secret exchange where Eve's having a conversation with the serpent and Adam has

no clue that it's going on. No, he was there, He was

with them. He was co signing on this actor of rebellion against God's clear

commands. And then he took it a step further and he participated it in

So anyone who's tried to use these verses like, oh, Adam, he's

not to blame, Yes he is. He's equally as guilty. He was

there the whole time he participated in this sin too, to which I say,

come on, Adam, you're killing me smalls. I love Sandlot.

For those who were curious, Okay, let's keep moving and look at what

happens following their sin and how they reacted. I'm gonna take a bigger chunk

of this text just also so it don't take forever. But I want you

to look at there's this like progression for how Adam and Eve responded to their

sin, or responded after their sins. We're gonna gk at verses seven through

thirteen. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized

they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as

he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they

hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord

God called to the man, where are you? He answered, I heard

you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so

I hid, and he said, who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten from the tree that I commandage you not to eat from?

The man said, the woman you put here with me? She gave me

some fruit from the tree and I ate it. Then the Lord God said

to the woman, what is this you have done? The woman said,

the serpent deceived me and I ate. Did you guys see the progression in

that kind of what happened? I word it like this. Let's go to

the next slide. Sin leads to shame, leads to hiding, and leads

to blame. This is the progression, the progression that we just saw sin,

shame, they hide, and they blame. They realized they were naked

and afraid to be seen, and they felt shame, so they covered themselves

up, and when they heard God was coming, they hid. God called

Adam. Why did they called Adam? Why did God called Adam? Because

Adams the one he left in charge. He's like, Adam, where are

you at? Well, Adam's hiding. The husband is head of the wife.

This is what we talked about last week. And God holds him accountable

for the headship of his family. So this sin happened under Adam's watch.

And what was Adam's response. I'll give you a hint. He blamed his

wife. Nice job, Adam, just kidding. I'm horrible about it too.

Adam blamed his wife, and so God confronts Eve, and Eve follows

what Adam led her to do. Oh, the head of the household,

My husband just blamed me. So she turns and blames the serpent. So

she blames and this post I call it post progression. Excuse me, post

sin progression. I think it's familiar to all of us. We kind of

feeled the same. We fall in the same kind of track. We sin,

we feel shame, we hide from the Lord or our brothers and sisters

in Christ, who God graciously gave us to walk alongside in this journey,

and then we blame anyone other than ourselves. There's always a reason why we

sin, right, It's always a reason. But the beautiful thing is about

being a Christians. We have forgiveness from all of it, and because of

that we should get off this track and go to this next one. When

we sin should lead to conviction, that leads us to repent, that leads

us to praising Jesus. When we sin, we feel conviction, we repent,

and we praise Jesus, then rinse and repeat, because this is the

walk in a Christian this is what we do when we sin as believers.

We should feel the conviction from God, the Holy Spirit. He's like,

hey, course, correction which leads to us repenting of our sin and repent

again. All OURMINDI is like, we're going in one direction. To repent

is to stop, to turn and go the other direction. So we feel

that conviction from the Holy Spirit leads us to repent of our sins, and

then we praise and thank Jesus for the forgiveness through his blood. It's amazing

that we get access to that. And I don't care how far down that

other track you go, just get off of it and get onto this track

as a believer. Ro I'm speaking to believers right now. Doesn't matter how

far down the track you could be, all the way at the blame stage,

cool, turn around and go the other way, doesn't matter how far

down the wrong path you are. The one who turns first is now in

the lead going the right direction. Okay, next to her In Genesis it

moves on to the results or the consequences of the sin. So let's take

a look at that. In verses fourteen and fifteen. So the Lord God

said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above

all livestock and all wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and you

will eat just all the days of your life. And I will put enemity

between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will crush

your head and you will strike his heel. God curse the serpent above all

the other animals, made him crawl on his belly and eat dirt basically,

but more important thing here is in verse fifteen. Can we go back so

I can read that again from the beginning of verse fifteen, and I will

put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. Next

slide, he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. So

obviously we don't like snakes. Naturally, there is a natural bit of enmity

between us. But this is a much much deeper meaning here it's referencing the

enmity between Jesus and Satan. That Satan will bruise the heel of Jesus through

his crucifixion and death, but that Jesus will crush the serpent's head by raising

to life and defeating death completely. This is a foreshadowing, which is amazing

and I love it. I think it's so cool when scripture, when God

gives us that in scripture, He's like, we get to see the future

promises. And this is what brings me comfort, knowing that all the way

back here in Genesis three, that God is saying, no, I have

a plan. He's omniscient. He knows everything. He has a plan,

knowing that he created as good, knowing that we will choose to do what

we're not supposed to do. He already knew it and had a plan,

and he's and he's setting up some of that plan. I just think it's

so amazing. Like Duncan and I were talking about this this past week,

how like when you just dig into finding out what scripture actually means, what

God intended for it to mean, it's like a mind blower and you are

it's it's just so much it's just so much cool. I don't know.

I get geeked out about it and I get excited when I find out what

it actually means. Plus, I don't want to believe something is not true.

God didn't mean it to mean what I'm saying it means. Then I'm

off. God always had a plan, though, and we get to see

bits and pieces of it all the way back this gospel message, all the

way back in Genesis three, and now God talks to specifically the woman.

To the woman, he said, I will make your pains and child bearing

very severe with painful labor. You will give birth to children. Your desire

will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. I mean,

just read these verses last week, but let's do a little refresher.

Part of the woman's curse of sinning is pain and childbearing. And any woman

who's gone through labor, or anyone who's been around a woman going through labor,

there's nothing easier pain for you about it. It's pain full. And

I think the words severe, very severe, nailed it. Good word choice,

God. It's pretty severe, even when you have to do like I

mean, we got two boys. It's very severe. It's all I'm gonna

say. And the other part of the curse was that the woman's desire will

be for her husband. And we know that this means that her desire will

be to rule over him, or desire his position of headship in the home,

and his response to her flesh reacting in that way would be to push

back on that and rule over her. And in a way that's sinful as

well. So we see this this fracturing of the perfect order of relationships that

existed before, like it worked right before the sin, and now it's not

going to work right anymore. And I wonder also if this isn't just a

curse but also just a natural progression of sin festering and growing in someone's life,

like one of this is just like the natural progression at work in men

and women who are following their flesh. And then God moves on and addresses

the man to Adam. He said, because you listen to your wife and

ate fruit from the tree about which I commandage you, you must not eat

from it curses the ground because of you, through painful toil. You will

eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns

and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field by

the sweat of your brow. You will eat your food until you return to

the ground. Since from it you were taken. For dust you are,

and to dust you will return. Is anyone have a garden? Raise your

hand proudly. Who's got a garden in here? Love it? We don't

have a garden because we kill everything we grow. Gardening ain't easy, I'll

just say that. And there's always something that's out there trying to destroy what

you're trying to grow, it seems. And for those green thumbs out there,

like it's not hard. Think about the whole list of things you got

to do to keep your stuff alive, all the pests that try to eat

them, or the animals scarecrows exist for a reason to scare birds away from

stealing your food, right, Or what do you have to do to prepare

the soil? Like none of that's easy, Like you have to do a

ton of stuff just to make sure theres enough sunlight and water. Growing stuff

is difficult. There's a ton of things you have to do to make it

grow. And then if you look like big, big farming, it just

complicates all that even more. Big farming, like big farms is that's not

a real word, but whatever, So you do all of this stuff and

this stressful process and you still don't know how much of a yield you're going

to get. I know, we grew strawberries. We got a starter and

we did for two years. How many strawberries do we get? Yeah,

like seven two years? Two years we got seven strawberries. How big were

those strawberries? Embarrassing? Don't even say it. It was horrible. They

were like this big. They were delicious, but there was the smallest thing.

And I'm like, how do you go to the store and you get

big? Daddy said, and I get most of your Like that's not organic.

Yeah, that's also problematic. Farming is hard. Growing food from the

ground is hard, and that is part of the result of Adam's sin.

It didn't just screw up for Adam, screwed it up for everybody. Nice

job, Adam. But then what God says after that is I think far

more detrimental. Let's look at verse nineteen. No go back by the sweat

of your brow. You will eat from your food until you return to the

ground, since from it you were taken. For dust you are, and

to dust you'll return. That part God's talking about death and humanity. Death.

Death is now showed up, and this is talking about physical death,

which was not part of God's initial design for humanity. They were when God

created Adam and Eve. There we always think about just the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil. Right next to it was the tree of life.

That's the other tree that was next to it. His intention was for

mankind to live, eat and live forever. But everything broke when Adam and

Eve sinned. And the statistics are really hard to deny. Do you know

that one and one people die? It's hard to I mean, there's only

two people I read in the Bible that didn't like die die, but man

so. And we see the results of physical death around us all the time.

But this isn't the physical death. Isn't the only death that was introduced

in that moment. We also see spiritual death. And I want to look

at a Phesians too to talk about spiritual death. As for you, you

were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live. When

you follow the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom,

of the heir, the spirit who is now at work in those who are

disobedient, all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the

cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest,

we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for

us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ

even when we were dead in transgressions. It's by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians is amazing, especially right at the beginning where they're just explaining the

gospel. It's amazing. But what does it mean to be dead in your

transgressions and sins? Obviously the people who were being a reference here were not

physically dead. They were alive. That's what he was talking to living people

right, saying, you used to be dead. No, it's a different

kind of death, and it's only by grace. It's a different kind of

death. It's a spiritual death. And it's only by the grace of God

that he raises us from the spiritual death and makes us alive in Jesus Christ.

But because of Adam's sin, we're all in this natural state of rebellion

against God. Can you go back one slide? Like the rest, we

were by nature deserving of wrath. What wrath is are talking about the wrath

of God? On our sin for all eternity, Like, that's our natural

state because of Adam's sin. I think it's Genesis five when it talks about

the Yeah, it's from Adam to Noah when he talks about the lineage when

God created It is not in the notes. So sorry, don't freak out,

Patricia. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of

God. You know that God created us in his image. He created them

male and female, and blessed them, and he named them mankind when they

were created. In verse three, when Adam lived one hundred and thirty years,

he had his own son in his own likeness. Wait a minute,

Adam have sin in our lives. Plus, I don't think we should ever

be so arrogant to think that if I was in the garden, I would

make the right choice. Now, it's hilarious, but just to show how

bad it is, let's go to Romans three. This is how bad it

is. As it is written. There is no one righteous, not even

one. There is no one who understands, There is no one who seeks

God. All have turned away. They have together become worthless. That's strong.

There is no one who does good, not even one their throats are

open graves. Their tongues practice to see. The poison of vipers is on

their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are

swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways and the ways of

peace. They do not know. There is no fear of God before their

eyes. That's rough. That's what spiritual death looks like. That is us

in our fallen state. That is us in our flesh. And this all

came about through Adam's disobedience and sin. Okay, we'll have a couple more

verses. You guys doing okay, sweet, Let's go to verses twenty and

twenty one. Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of

all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his

wife and clothed them. So Adam continued his job that God gave him,

which is to name everything. And he named his wife Eve. And we

see that after all the sin that came through that God still provided for Adam

and Eve. He still provided for them. Their fig leaves weren't sufficient their

solution to their sin. I want to say this is real deep. Their

solution to their sin was not good enough. They tried to fix the problem

and it wasn't good enough. But God provided. God made them garments of

skin to clothe them. Where to get the skin from had to come from

a living creature, and that means that something had to die. Something had

to die. And as we keep reading of the Bible of Bieble, by

the way, I'm a believer for real, I love justin Bieber. As

we keep reading the Bible, we see that God set it up to work,

set up to work this way, that forgiveness for your sins comes through

bloodshed, because the wages of sin is death. When you work and you

are owed payment for something, that's what a wage is. Right. That

means for all your work of sin, your payment is death. That is

what the wages of sin is. But God set up a substitutionary system of

death where animals could be sacrificed instead of the person needing to die for their

sin. Now, obviously we see this fulfilled fully in Christ, who is

the perfect sacrifice, so we don't need because why else should we have to

keep sacrificing animals because they're not good enough? But Jesus is that final full

sacrifice, and we'll talk about that later. But this is the first instance

of an animal death for the sake or for the bloodshed, for the sake

of forgiveness of sin. And God made those the skin into garments for Adam

and Eve to clothe them. And the last part of the text for today

is God's judgment on Adam and Eve. And if I can have the band

come up, please, that would be amazing. So let's look at verses

twenty two through twenty four. Jerry's gonna play a drum solo, just kidding.

And the Lord I don't know how I get anything done with how to

stray? Did I get? Just so you know? And the Lord God

said, The Lord God said, the man has now become like one of

us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out

his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.

So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the

ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out,

he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden a cherubim and a

flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the Tree of life.

God is the one who created everything, right, yeah, facts,

he created everything. That means he gets to set the standard for man to

live by. And if he sets the standard for man to live by,

then he also gets to set the consequences were failing to hold to his standard.

He said, I created you to be and do this, and you

didn't be and do this. You were and did that. Therefore this is

the result. He created it all, so he gets to set these standards.

And there's two big consequences that we see in the text that we just

read. The first is that Adam and Eve lost access to the Tree of

Life that gave them eternal physical life. They lost access to that, which

means they get to experience physical death. The second is that they were banished

from the garden, which already sounds bad enough because the garden is pretty awesome,

right, it's awesome, So it sounds bad enough that they're kicked out

of the garden. But what is much much worse is that they were banished

from freely being in the presence of God. That's the real part that's hard

to swallow. It's far more devastating of a consequence. But God is pure

holiness, and things that aren't holy can't exist in his space. I like

to think about as God is light, and I use this example a lot,

so you guys have probably heard it. Can light and darkness exist at

the same time. No, If a room is dark and you turn on

the light, darkness flees. It can't exist in the space because light makes

it disappear. God is pure light, He is holy, and unholiness or

darkness cannot exist in his space. It cannot exist without him fixing something.

But I can't imagine going from literally being in the presence of God at all

times to suddenly being cut off from that. I can't even fathom what that

would be like. But because God is pure holiness, pure lightness, banishment

from being in his presence makes perfect sense to me. You can't exist in

my space because you're unholy now, so we've banished them. But I also

want to mention that this is is a just judgment. It is right for

God to do that. It's devastating, and it's right why Because he created

all things, He set the standard, and he sets the consequences. And

we know it doesn't end there. Praise God. It doesn't end there.

That he made a way. So we just talked about what Christians believe about

the fall of mankind and its consequences throughout all of humanity. But what the

heck do we do with all that information? And we're preparing messages, we

think like, Okay, what's the application point? How do I apply what

the heck I just learned today? And next week Pastor Duncan's going to preach

about the Gospel, which is exciting, right, we love the Gospel.

It's the good News of Jesus Christ. He's going to break that down next

week. So the first thing I would say for today is, if you

haven't put faith in Jesus and trusted him for salvation from your sin, the

realities that you are still in your state of being spiritually dead, and then

you only have death, judgment, and hell in your eternal future. Jesus

came and lived a perfect sinless life and died in the place for those who

believe in him, so that believers don't have to pay the penalty for their

life filled of sin. And if you're like, well, if they're a

kid, like, that's not a life full of sin. The wages of

sin is death. One sin doesn't matter you murdered somebody or total white lie.

It's all the same. It's imperfect, it's unholy, and we all

are born and no one's just told one white line. Let's just be really

has always been more sin than that. The point is us being born in

sin. Every single one of us needs a savior. We all need to

turn to Jesus. So my plea is if you haven't put faith in Jesus,

is to repent of your unbelief and believe in Jesus. That's how you

get access to forgiveness, and that's how you get eternal like that is how

God fixed with Adam broke. It's through Jesus Christ. But the other big

thing I wantest to consider today is that Eve was deceived and tempted by Satan

to not follow God's command. And what Satan did was he attacked God's character

and started sow seeds of doubt about God in Eve's mind. So Eve thought

she was missing something or that God was holding something from her. And I

want to make this big point about Satan's deception and sin. Sin always promises

something more but never delivers. Sin always promises something more but never delivers.

Since says that God's way isn't good enough, It isn't enough. There's something

better that you're missing out on something? What more do we need? What

more do we need? Just be satisfied in Christ? We've received forgiveness in

eternal life. What more do we need? What can sin promise that's better

than that? I'll give you a hint, nothing, nothing. So we

need to fight to not get sucked into this like discontentedness. But I think

that the root of pretty much all of our sin is pride. It's me

saying I can meet my needs better than you can God. That's why we're

impatient. That's why we do things that we should that are obviously we shouldn't

do. So my question for us today is this, where do I fail

to trust God's plan in my life? And what I mean by plan is

He gave us commands. He told you what to do, how to be,

how to live. So where do I fail to trust God and his

plans in my life? Where do I do this? Where do I believe

the lies of Satan that sinning or not following God's commands is better? Where

do I trust anything other than the plans of God? Where do I do

that? In my life and don't feel alone, because there's some pretty awesome

people in the Bible who struggled with this too. At Abraham and Sarah.

God promised Abraham that his ascendence would be what numerous as the stars or the

sand on the seashores, right, but he didn't have any kids yet.

They didn't have any kids yet, and they were like mega old. And

I can say that because no one hears like a hundred. Even if you're

a hundred, you feel pretty scrightly, don't You don't have to be meg

old. It's okay. But Abraham and Sarah, they grew impatient and decided

to take God's promise into their own hands. Let's look in Genesis sixteen.

Now Sarah or Sarah i e God changes their name a little bit later towards

Sarah and Abraham. I don't know why do the dumb things I do on

stage in front of everybody, but you're welcome. Well. Abraham's wife had

borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar. So

she said to Abram, the Lord has kept me from having children, Go

sleep with my slave. Perhaps I can build a family through her. Abraham

agreed to what Sarah said, Come on, abroom, it's a trap.

It's a trap. We go back when I forgot the last words. So,

after Bremen had been living in Caine in ten years, Sarah's wife took

her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.

He slept with Hagar and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant,

she began to despise her mistress. When Hagar knew she was pregnant, she

decided started to despise her mistress. And if you keep reading, it only

gets worse from there. There's more animosity between the women, and the Angel

of the Lord goes and tells Hagar about her son, Ishmael's future, that

he will be a man in hostility with his brothers, that his hand will

be against everyone and their hands will be against him, like he's constantly fighting.

And if you follow his lineage, his line became known as the Arabs,

who were at war with all the tribes related to them. I mean,

the whole Muslim belief goes back to saying that Ishmael was the true heir

of the promises of God from Abraham. I mean they got lots of other

beliefs that are wrong, but look at the wars and the fighting that is

still happening today. This prophecy goes a whole lot further. So. Sarah

and Abraham's impatience with God's promise of giving them a son led to all kinds

of turmoil which we're still seeing the results of today. And obviously that's a

really big example. I don't know that most of us have big examples like

that in our life. But it's not always the big things. Sometimes it's

the small things. I think most often it's actually the small things that we

fail to trust God's plan in commands. Do I tell a little white lie

to avoid a tough conversation? Do I steal things out of fear that God

won't provide what I need? Do I let my wife carry more weight of

responsibility for the family than she should because then I don't have to? I

think that's probably when I'm guilty of most I'm like, oh, you want

to take care of that. I'm sure a sweet girl power. And God's

like bro, come on, I don't know if God calls me bro,

but probably not. He's like son, Like, oh, that's way worse.

But you could literally pick any command it doesn't matter, or any plan

that God has set. Do I fail to trust God's plan as best and

do I attempt to do things in my own way. My hope and my

prayer is that this week, I mean forever, but this week specifically,

that we would do some self reflection and look for areas where we're acting just

like Adam and Eve when they send them the garden. This is myself included.

I want to do self reflection on that as well. And my prayer

is also that God would lovingly reveal those areas to us so that we can

work to our fleshed to death and walk in obedience to what He has commanded

us to do and who he has commanded us to be. Obedience to the

commands of God is always best, and it's what's right. The author of

life has the best plan on how it should be lived. We have everything

we need in Christ. We're lacking nothing, nothing, so there's no need

to believe the lies of Satan that through sin. There's more. There's no

need to believe those lies. Godliness with contentment is great gain. Being content

following the Lord Godliness, That's what it is. Being into keeping in step

with the spirit, following commands of God. Being content in that is great

gain. It's the gain that matters. Can you guys stand your feet for

me. Please. We're going to go into worship just for one more song.

But before we do that, or while we're doing that, we're going

to have our pastors and elders who are available on the side ready to pray

for you, guys, or anything you need. So I would encourage you

to go get prayer because we would have loved to pray for you. It

doesn't matter what it's or anything. If something in todays we were reading through

scripture and the Lord's just piercing your heart, let us pray with you and

just agree and thank God that he's doing a work in you, and pray

that you get the courage and the strength to be obedient and walking what He's

called you to do. And if you are a little nervous about coming up

for prayer, we do have connect cards like this and on the back says

need prayer, have questions. So if you're a little nervous about coming up

and get in prayer, that's okay. We'd love to pray for you'd rather

you come up to us, but you can fill this out and drop it

in the offering box on your way out of the door, and we'll be

praying for him this week all your prayer requests. And if it's something that'll

go out to basically all of everyone in the church almost So if you don't

want it to go out to everybody, you just wanted to stay with the

pastors, then write private on there or just market somehow to let us know

you don't want it to go to everybody, but we'll still be praying for

him this week. It's awesome, And if you did come prepared to give,

you can drop it in the offering box on the way out as well.

But we're gonna sing a song and I'm gonna pray and then we can

get on with the rest of this amazing Sunday. Yeah, God, we

thank you for today. We thank you for this time and your word God,

as we study the fall of mankind. God, we just pray that

the message that you want us to hear today is we hear it loud and

clear. Gotta pray if there's areas in our lives where we are trusting in

ourself or believing the lies of satan, that sin is going to give us

what we need, or it's going to be the better path. God,

I pray that you just eradicate that from our lives. That as that thought

comes to our mind, we're sick to our stomach and said, God,

remove that, please and give us this sense of just freedom to run in

obedience to you. God. That the devastation that happened after Adam and Eve

sin that we don't forget that a sin leads to death, that's just what

it does. But obedience leads to life. So God, just give us

a desire to please you as your children. We know it's going to be

hard, but God, I just pray you give us the strength to trust

you. And as we forget, remind us speak straight to our hearts about

us. Send our brothers and sisters in Christ near by us to be like,

Hey, remember, obedience leads to life. So God, I just

pray that this message just sticks in our hearts this week, and then we

are able to reflect on our own hearts and then you reveal the things that

we need to get out of our lives. God, that we have ears

to hear, that eyes to see it. But most importantly the heart to

answer and the affirmative to respond to you in obedience. So God, we

just thank you for this time and pray that it's been beneficial for us,

but most importantly glorifying and honoring to you. Let me thank you for your

word and the fellowship of us as believers in Jesus name. Amen,